There is increasing momentum behind impact investing—the global movement of investors, development agencies, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists working to realize financial, social, and environmental gains.

For nearly five years, I have had the pleasure of serving as a senior consultant at the MIF. I came here after working for China’s central bank and for the Asian Development Bank in order to establish and nurture connections between my country and LAC—especially when it comes to exchanging experiences and information about microfinance and MSME development.

Analysts often refer to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – together constituting the so-called Northern Triangle - as particularly illustrative examples of the importance of remittances for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). They rightly do so. For one, the three countries receive relatively large amounts of these international financial flows. In 2015 remittances to the Northern Triangle exceeded $14 billion, constituting approximately a fifth of the total migrant transfers received by all LAC countries and corresponding to 17%, 10% and 18% of the gross domestic products of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, respectively.

For years, Latin America and the Caribbean has been looking for the right innovation model to replicate as a way to unlock capital for its entrepreneurs. Is it Silicon Valley? Israel? Korea? Boulder? Which model has the magic wand that will transform Latin America and the Caribbean and allow it to play with the “big guys”: the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, or Korea?

65 million years ago, a dinosaur was eating peacefully—as many generations of dinosaurs had done before—when it noticed a ball of fire in the sky moving toward the Earth. The dinosaur was a bit worried, but as a member of the most successful and longest lasting species of animals back in those times, it didn't think the meteor was a threat to its existence. Meanwhile, a small rat-like animal, one of the first mammals on Earth, ran close to the dinosaur, eating some of its leftovers.